Buying a brand new resort- BLT experience

For those that purchased BLT at the very beginning, I was wondering what type of deals Disney was offering out of the gate?

As we wait on the BWV waiting list I realized there is a decent chance VGF will be announced and I was curious how good the opening deals might be. I realize they are setting it up to be very expensive but do they try and make a push early just to get some momentum out of the gate? Any chance it could "drop" to something like $150? I know, crazy to think of that as a price drop but I was thinking that would be "best case" if they had aggressive early deals?

They also appear to be setting up the point chart to be even higher then BLT which could make the whole thing crazy expensive as well.

When we bought, the incentives were some cash discount, i think it was $6 or was it $12/pt? But the one I really wanted and what sold me was a free cruise for a family of 4 on the new ship, the Disney Dream.

Best deal was AKL in 2008: 160 pts at $106, DVC gifted $5000 towards purchase, no MF until May '09 which were prorated until Kidani opened and 160 pts at SSR to use 'free'. Use Disney card to put $500 'down' and the visa card gave you $500 in cash back. Nice deal.

We bought BLT before opening but after the initial offering. When we bought I think the cruise incentive was available but we went for the discount on the points and got them for $92 a point. Our points were not usable until the resort opened but that was only a few months away at that point. They also got us a reservation at Thanksgiving using the points at BLT as part of our buying in.

If I remember correctly the price is higher initially to take advantage of the excited buyers and the people who want to be founders.

Then they offer different deals as they warn of a price increase.

Depending on their expected sales, how they are meeting their quota and other factors they will play the deal/price increase game until they are sold out.

Bill

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Hi bill, that is what I was curious about. If the first deals were not the best (because they sold to people eagerly waiting for the resort) and if it was the second phase deals that were better. I was not sure if Disney had that pattern or not. Given we are waiting for our first purchase on the waiting list, if VGF opens up, we will only probably see the very first deals before having to make our decision about BWV. Of course, the point chart could also be so crazy that the price per point might not much matter because to stay a week will take so many points. Even if they had a decent point offer the idea of having a home resort you could not book for a week because the point cost was so high would appear to be a bad idea!

All that being said, the idea of buying in early in a fresh resort does have some appeal, given we are going direct, it will be the price everyone had to pay to start anyway at VGF. The people that purchased early at BLT have appeared to fair pretty well given the later price increases and current resale market.

When we bought into BLT we bought 100 points at $120 per point and DVC gave us a 10% downpayment as an incentive. Earlier this year we added an additional 50 point BLT contract directly through DVC and paid $165 per point. Yikes! But still worth it to us.

We were not interested in BLT when it came out. However, we have stayed there and decided that it would be a better fit for us than the DVC at the GF due to cost and the reality that people would be buying week long shares. We did not want to be up against those people for December weeks which we think would be very popular ones to buy.

So, we have bought 100 BLT points @ $96 very recently. We have enough other points to use for items like DCL cruises and other things that these points can't buy.

Hi bill, that is what I was curious about. If the first deals were not the best (because they sold to people eagerly waiting for the resort) and if it was the second phase deals that were better. I was not sure if Disney had that pattern or not. Given we are waiting for our first purchase on the waiting list, if VGF opens up, we will only probably see the very first deals before having to make our decision about BWV. Of course, the point chart could also be so crazy that the price per point might not much matter because to stay a week will take so many points. Even if they had a decent point offer the idea of having a home resort you could not book for a week because the point cost was so high would appear to be a bad idea!

All that being said, the idea of buying in early in a fresh resort does have some appeal, given we are going direct, it will be the price everyone had to pay to start anyway at VGF. The people that purchased early at BLT have appeared to fair pretty well given the later price increases and current resale market.

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DVD is under new management and from what I have been told new guy doesn't know anything about DVD/DVC. He might stick with past sales tactics or he might want to make his mark and come up with something new.

My guess is that he will be under massive pressure to perform with VGF coming on line. The construction IMO is moving slower than normal and I bet we don't see completion until 2014.

The recent price increases are a step towards setting the VGF price. If sales are slow, there may be some better deals after the initial offer. With DCL having trouble filling cabins, I expect to see some "free" cruise offers latter on.

Best deal was AKL in 2008: 160 pts at $106, DVC gifted $5000 towards purchase, no MF until May '09 which were prorated until Kidani opened and 160 pts at SSR to use 'free'. Use Disney card to put $500 'down' and the visa card gave you $500 in cash back. Nice deal.

We bought AKL in 2008 but didn't get that deal. Timing is everything, right? We paid $96/point. No MF until 09 and we did get the SSR developer points as well as our 2008 points (no MF on them) which we banked.

At BLT we received $$$ off per point AND a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Magic.

However, in no way was BLT our best deal - $41.85 at HHI

That was with a year of points banked... and a year of points available, It was a resale purchase before all of the resale changes went into effect. Disney was selling HHI for $85 per point, and they didn't have our use year and told us to buy resale.

I've given thought to VGF, and I will be a little surprised if it goes on the market for less than $180 p/p - I know that sounds extremely high, but they will have some type of promo on it - and will take it back down to $160 p/p or so. OR They may start sales at $200 per point, and drop dues below that of BLT.

The thought of higher point cost, and lower point value to book a room would never work out - then people (like us) that bought points for incredibly low prices.... would have access to a resort that is far more expensive. So that's not going to happen... unless they introduce a new class of resorts with additional benefits and such - and offer an upgrade to BLT members. I can see that happening - they would love to get more out of current owners since that resort didn't sell at near the prices that they hoped it would.

Of course, the point chart could also be so crazy that the price per point might not much matter because to stay a week will take so many points. Even if they had a decent point offer the idea of having a home resort you could not book for a week because the point cost was so high would appear to be a bad idea!

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Here's a funny thought...what if VGF owners start booking at lower point cost per night resorts to make their extremely expensive direct points go further, this could open up the resort at the 7 month mark to people with a large amount of points that they got fairly cheap at resale.

Not that I think this will happen; it's never happened anywhere else (has it?); but it would be funny.

Here's a funny thought...what if VGF owners start booking at lower point cost per night resorts to make their extremely expensive direct points go further, this could open up the resort at the 7 month mark to people with a large amount of points that they got fairly cheap at resale.

Not that I think this will happen; it's never happened anywhere else (has it?); but it would be funny.

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One thing that could happen is that owners simply drop the ball. We've seen on here many times people saying that they book 4-6 months out. If VGF owners try that, they might be gravely disappointed that all the availability has been taken by resale SSR owners at 8am on the 7 month window.

One thing that could happen is that owners simply drop the ball. We've seen on here many times people saying that they book 4-6 months out. If VGF owners try that, they might be gravely disappointed that all the availability has been taken by resale SSR owners at 8am on the 7 month window.

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I'll probably try VGF once, assuming I can tear myself away from BWV, although I said that about BLT and haven't got around to trying to stay their yet.

For those that purchased BLT at the very beginning, I was wondering what type of deals Disney was offering out of the gate?

As we wait on the BWV waiting list I realized there is a decent chance VGF will be announced and I was curious how good the opening deals might be. I realize they are setting it up to be very expensive but do they try and make a push early just to get some momentum out of the gate? Any chance it could "drop" to something like $150? I know, crazy to think of that as a price drop but I was thinking that would be "best case" if they had aggressive early deals?

They also appear to be setting up the point chart to be even higher then BLT which could make the whole thing crazy expensive as well.

Ok, so I know they're totally sales and want to make a deal, but when we talked to a guide a month or so back we decided to see what VGF would do before waitlisting for BC/BW/BLT (hubs only wants monorail or walkable resorts). Guide said he had no way to know for sure, no actual info, but that given his history with them and what he's seen, he felt like it would be about $150/pt when the incentives are taken into account at initial opening.

Given the more and more solid rumors about the Poly, I think they might have to do something along those lines - not that there aren't a ton of GF lovers, but Poly fans (like us!) are pretty rabid. My husband is now getting so excited about the Poly that he's thinking we hold off a year just to see. (I of course am lobbying for a small contract now and add on a larger Poly when that happens)

Ok, so I know they're totally sales and want to make a deal, but when we talked to a guide a month or so back we decided to see what VGF would do before waitlisting for BC/BW/BLT (hubs only wants monorail or walkable resorts). Guide said he had no way to know for sure, no actual info, but that given his history with them and what he's seen, he felt like it would be about $150/pt when the incentives are taken into account at initial opening.

Given the more and more solid rumors about the Poly, I think they might have to do something along those lines - not that there aren't a ton of GF lovers, but Poly fans (like us!) are pretty rabid. My husband is now getting so excited about the Poly that he's thinking we hold off a year just to see. (I of course am lobbying for a small contract now and add on a larger Poly when that happens)

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We are on the BWV waiting list at $125 per point. We missed the $115 cut off. So, $150 per point for VGF would be tempting if it turns out to be that low. We started at $90.00 per point for a BLT resale that got gobbled up in ROFR. Every week that goes by I appear to find a new angle to spend even more money for points!

Although it makes no financial sense, the other thing that would be nice about VGF for our first purchase is for at least a year or two, it will be the price everyone else had to pay to buy the resort (due to no resale market at the start). Although we love BWV, it is hard to pay such a high price for an older resort. Again, no financial sense to that, but it does play a mental game on us!